Timeless Excellence: Honoring MNA’s Fine Arts Collection is an exhibit of 52 compelling works by some of the most important artists to interpret the Colorado Plateau, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. This new exhibit opens at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff on Saturday, June 17, 2006 through Sunday, April 22, 2007.
The MNA Fine Arts Collection has its origins in Native artwork collected by its founders, the Coltons. The Museum’s Hopi and Navajo Festivals were also important occasions for early acquisitions.
Early Anglo artists came to visit and paint the region in the early years of the area’s exploration. The earliest works in the exhibit are by Vincent Colyer in 1869 and Samuel Colman in 1870. They represent a growing number of artists from the East at this time who explored the Colorado Plateau. They were followed by Fredrick Dellenbaugh and William Henry Holmes, who worked for John Wesley Powell in his survey of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon region and painted in 1880. These four artists gave easterners their very first glimpses of landscapes that would draw tourists to the West in ever-increasing numbers.
DeWitt Parshall and Louis Aiken were commissioned by the Santa Fe Railway to produce paintings for brochures and travel posters, advocating travel to “America’s Wonderland.” They both produced a number of works in exchange for travel and lodging expenses along the rail line.
Timeless Excellence includes a number of important works by some of the most prominent artists who worked in the Studio Style. Fred Kabotie, Robert Chee, and Harrison Begay represent a major shift for Indian art as prior to attending U.S. government boarding schools, Indian artists had no tradition of painting on paper or canvas. In the Studio Style, two-dimensional shapes are highly stylized and frequently depict Indian life in an idealized manner.
An additional highlight of the exhibit is a large number of paintings by Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton, a painter of great talent from the early twentieth century. Her paintings of dramatic southwestern landscapes, and Hopi and Navajo people, show influences from popular early-twentieth century Art Deco-style paintings and graphics, and from Japanese woodblock prints.
Later twentieth century artists like Michael Kabotie and Helen Hardin work with elements of traditional, even prehistoric, imagery, but are no longer bound by sentimental and or clichéd illustrations. And despite the influence of modern art movements, naturalistic work such as Earl Carpenter’s and Wilson Hurley’s are still among the most popular works, with the visual language of nineteenth century Romanticism still important to artists on the Colorado Plateau.
The Museum of Northern Arizona is one of the great regional museums of our world, surrounded by tremendous geological, biological, and cultural resources in one of Earth’s most spectacular landscapes. With a long and illustrious history, MNA evokes the very spirit of the Colorado Plateau, including the Grand Canyon and Four Corners regions, inspiring a sense of love and responsibility for the beauty and diversity of the area. Presenting Native cultures, tribal lifeways, natural sciences, and fine arts, the Museum serves as a gateway to understanding this magnificent region.
MNA is located three miles north of historic downtown Flagstaff on scenic Highway 180. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 adult, $4 senior (65+), $3 student, $2 child (7–17) and always free for members.